


Zelos Experiences Mana Shock

by adexia



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mana drain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-08 01:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4285620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adexia/pseuds/adexia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After arriving in Sylvarant from Tethe'alla, Zelos learns the perils of spamming magic in a low-mana world and has to get carried to safety.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zelos Experiences Mana Shock

It was a couple weeks into their return to Sylvarant, and the members of the party hailing from Tethe’alla were still adjusting to life in this world. Sheena was, of course, already used to many of the differences, while Regal was slowly adjusting and Presea was having no trouble (and a little too much helpful advice from Genis).

Zelos was basically treating it like a vacation. “What the hell even is that thing?” he would ask, pointing his sword at a monster that he’d never seen in Tethe’alla. And Raine would roll her eyes in exasperation and explain, as concisely as she was able, that it was a zombie or a plant beast or whatever it happened to be. “You guys seriously have those things over here? Okay, well, let’s go kill it,” Zelos would then say, and Lloyd would roll his eyes in exasperation and lead the group towards the monster, unless it was really out of their way, which it often was.

“Chosen, don’t you think you’re a little too relaxed about this?” Regal asked after a particularly excessive finish to a battle. “You’re not a tourist, and this isn’t Tethe’alla.”

Zelos made a dismissive gesture. “Please, I know what I’m doing,” he answered, waving his sword flippantly. “Besides, I got my bud Lloyd here to back me up! Right, Lloyd?” He plonked his elbow on Lloyd’s head and grinned down at him.

“Uh, sure?” Lloyd said, not really sure what the big deal was. Sure, Zelos was using a lot of spells all the time, on everything, but there wasn’t really anything wrong with that. “Get your arm off me, though.” He ducked out of Zelos’s elbow, and the Chosen swayed for a moment before righting himself again.

Raine sighed. “This isn’t Tethe’alla, Zelos,” she scolded. “If you keep going like you have been, your mana--”

“What-ever!” Zelos interrupted, turning away from the professor. “I’ve been doing it like this for years.”

“If you say so,” Raine said coolly, crossing her arms. “Lloyd, shall we move on?”

As the group moved on and various conversations resumed, Regal hung back to walk with Raine. “He’s going to go into mana shock soon, isn’t he?” he asked. “Why not warn him?”

Raine nodded, eyeing Zelos critically from where he was attempting to flirt with both Lloyd and Sheena at the same time. “I think he needs to be taken down a peg or two,” she replied.

“Professor, what’s mana shock?” Colette asked, coming up on Raine’s other side. “Is it something the rest of us should be worried about?”

“Oh, not at all, Colette,” Raine said. “Mana shock happens when someone who uses magic does so continuously, to the point of running out of mana--at that point spells begin to fail or take the body’s life energy to perform. Those of us from Sylvarant have been trained in a world with little mana, so we’re used to it, but Zelos and Regal…”

“I knew there wasn’t much mana, so I’ve been pacing myself,” Regal added. “Zelos doesn’t seem to remember this, though.”

Colette looked between Regal and Raine, concerned. “Is he going to be okay?”

Raine nodded. “Of course. He’ll probably just fall unconscious--hopefully not in the middle of battle, but we should keep an eye on him just the same.”

It didn’t take much longer for the mana shock to kick in. In the middle of an encounter with a small pack of monster wolves, Zelos finished casting a fireball and then immediately fell face-first into the dirt. “Zelos!” Lloyd shouted in alarm, looking at his fallen friend.

“Focus on the fight!” Sheena snapped, striking at one of the wolves with her cards. “We’ll take care of him after!” Reluctantly, Lloyd nodded and shuffled closer to Zelos’s fallen form to keep the remaining wolves at bay while Sheena and Colette handled those further away.

Once the wolves were dealt with, Lloyd sheathed his swords and knealt by Zelos, turning him over onto his back. The other world’s Chosen was unconscious, pale and drenched in sweat, a trickle of blood coming from his nose. “Professor, is he okay?” he asked anxiously as Raine trotted over with her staff. “He was doing fine, he doesn’t look hurt or anything!”

Raine knelt by Zelos and examined him, then nodded. “He’ll be fine, Lloyd,” she reassured him. “It’s mana shock--he overexerted himself and was taking from his own life force for spells. He just needs to rest and take it easy.”

“There’s a house of salvation nearby,” Colette offered. “We could take Zelos there and rest for the night. Lloyd, do you want me to carry him?”

“That’s a good idea,” Lloyd said, then shook his head. “Nah, I can get him. Thanks, Colette.” She beamed at him as he stooped and pulled Zelos off the ground and, after some manouvering, got him settled piggyback. “Let’s get outta here.”

As the group set off once more, towards the house of salvation Colette had found, Lloyd found himself distracted by Zelos’s presence on his back. The unconscious chosen’s hair was dangling dangerously close to Lloyd’s face. Even after taking such a fall, the bright red curls still held their bounce. “Is he wearing perfume?” he muttered, accidentally taking a whiff.

“Ugh, he’s still doing that?” Sheena asked from besides Lloyd. “I can’t believe he brought that smelly cologne along with him. What a mess.”

Lloyd took another sniff, identifying something similar to strawberries. “I dunno, it’s not that bad,” he said, shrugging gently so as not to disturb his passenger. Sheena gave him a look that he couldn’t quite identify, then hung back to talk to someone else as they walked.

The house of salvation wasn’t far off, luckily, and the priests in charge were more than happy to let the group stay (for a small price of course). The boys and girls split into different rooms, and Lloyd gently deposited Zelos onto one of the beds.

“He’ll be fine,” Genis said, eyeing the still-unconscious chosen. “I’m sure when he wakes up he’ll just be a big baby about it.”

“Yeah,” Lloyd said idly. “Listen, I’m gonna hang out and keep an eye on him for a while, it looks like he fell pretty hard.”

Genis looked up at him incredulously. “Lloyd, seriously?”

“I’m worried about him, okay?” Lloyd grinned. “You go hang out with Presea, I’ll catch up later.”

Blushing just a tad, Genis shuffled off to do just that, leaving Lloyd alone with Zelos.

Once the room was clear, Lloyd took a damp rag from the washbowl and started cleaning up Zelos’s face. He knew enough about the Chosen to know that waking up with blood and dirt on him would probably be more disastrous than the mana shock on its own. With that taken care of, Lloyd pulled the blanket up to Zelos’s chin, and sat down on his own bed to wait and do some woodcarving.

Raine and Colette both came to check on Zelos and Lloyd during the rest of the day; Colette even brought him up soup that Genis had made when it started getting dark. Zelos didn’t start showing signs of life until the sun had set and Lloyd was nearly done carving a fish out of some driftwood he’d been saving. He was startled by a groan from Zelos’s bed, and set the fish down to go investigate.

“Jeez, my head’s killin’ me,” Zelos lamented from his bed, grimacing with his eyes squeezed shut. “Which one of my beautiful hunnies has been taking care of me though?”

Lloyd snorted. “Just me, Zelos.”

“Well you better lean in for a rewar--wait, Lloyd?” Zelos opened his eyes, surprised, then shifted to a pout. “Not the glorious Raine or the sweet Colette?”

“Professor Sage said you just needed rest,” Lloyd said with a shrug. “She called it mana shock, I think? It’s this thing where if you use too much magic you start giving your life force to spells, or something like that.”  
Zelos sighed heavily. “Mana shock, huh? Guess I was pretty stupid. But hey,” he grinned up at Lloyd. “At least I got to have a cute nurse at my side all night.”

“Whatever that means,” Lloyd said blandly. “I’m gonna get you something to eat. Genis made some pretty great soup!” He turned to go, but was stopped by Zelos’s hand grasping his wrist lightly.

“Thanks for keepin’ an eye on me, bud,” Zelos said, smiling at Lloyd. “I mean it.”

Lloyd smiled back. “Hey, you’re my friend, and I was worried about you. It’s no problem.” He gently pulled Zelos’s hand off his wrist and went to retrieve some soup.

Zelos relaxed back into the bed. “Still in the friendzone,” he muttered to himself once Lloyd was out of earshot.


End file.
